Now that the Board adopted a budget . . .

The good news is the budget keeps elementary foreign language instruction, elementary summer school and keeps students at Livingston middle school – all of which is contrary to the original proposal made by the administration. Thanks are due to the parents and community members who spoke up and spoke out in regard to these issues.

A new program will be created at Harriet Gibbons High School for 9th graders who need extra help and resources in order to succeed at the High School. This is good, but I have concerns about what will happen to the current Harriet Gibbons students (current 9th, 10th and 11th graders) who will no longer be served by the alternative school and about whether the new 9th grade program will accomplish the goal of having all of the 9th graders in the program be able to join the High School as 10th graders the following year.

The bad news is there is a loss of roughly 30 teaching positions as well as a number of teaching assistants and other staff.

The budget was drafted based on the assumption that the State Aid to the Albany schools will be the figure originally proposed by Gov. Pataki. It now appears certain that Albany will receive a higher amount of State Aid, as adopted by the Legislature. Based on the Governor’s figure, the tax rate increase to support the Board’s budget would be about 14%. But, based on the Legislature’s number, the tax rate increase would only be about 7%.

The budget is not perfect. It is, however, a good budget that attempts – within severe financial constraints – to provide the resources needed in our schools.

We still need more resources. We continue to work to convince the Legislature to provide special “charter school impact relief” funding to the Albany schools.

I hope, and expect, the voters of Albany will continue to demonstrate support for the children and the schools by voting “yes” on this budget on May 16th.

One Response

I’m so sick and tired of reading your comments on how the charter school is the blame for all of the district’s problems. You should put the blame where it belongs, poor budget plannig and poor leadership.